I kinda liked the chaotic Nature of the first season of GX where every episodes is like a different mini short story cause to me, that’s what school was like every day was something kinda different and I feel season one of GX did that perfectly fine. Well that’s my opinion at least. Was fun
I disagree. I prefer the end season, the very dark and sad reality of this satanic world and the demonic world. And also I love the maturity of judai and the world building at the end, I wish the journey and the real anime started after he leaves academy and dueling against yugi when judai becomes a beard
0:54 I disagree with the idea that Konami “realized it’s mistake and decided to change gears”. As early as episodes 5&6 we’re reintroduced to the shadow games, Asuka/Alexis’s missing brother, and the abandoned dorm. The latter two plot points are revisited during the reporter subplot during Judai/Jaden’s duel with Misawa. The narrative shift (at least as far as S1 is concerned) was planned from the beginning. EDIT: spelling
Still, the writing was always pretty bad before season 3. Outside of maybe the few episodes from Asuka's brother to Camula to Kaibaman, you can't tell me you felt any tension before season 3. Everything is so weirdly paced, comedic and definitely not that smart... And that's not necessarily that bad, I like season 2 and the first half of season 1 but... For what they were trying to do, it clearly wasn't successful. I mean the light of destruction is supposed to be this interdimensional threat that aims to the complete annihilation of everything... And you see the main characters goofing around with it, calling it cool and never treating the situation seriously. It's a shame because GX has so many great ideas, but the execution and overall flow of the story just isn't natural
I agree. The first few seasons of lightheartedness were really needed to let the audience get used to a happy go-lucky Judai so that his arc would have more of an impact. Also just needed it to get all the characters in other than the transfers of course. I think it was also a great way to show how his friends began to rely on him more and more before he had his breaking point. At first, it just felt like normal protagonist stuff, but we really see how being someone who always felt like he needed to lead affected him in seasons three and four. It also gave Judai that special bond with Johan (other than them being connected by past. While it's not canon confirmed it has substantial evidence imo) since him and Johan could actually be equals. I also like how they used past arcs to show that Judai was capable of being knocked down mentally, so when he had his whole Haou thing, it made a lot more sense. Like you should've saw it coming from all the way back in those early seasons, but you didn't because he's happy Judai and he could never turn evil or sad. I mean you can even see the clear progression. He was a complete child in the first episodes, but you could slowly see him becoming more and more concerned as his friends relied on soley him to save them. That's just my take though, but I probably sound dumb so feel free to correct me.
As someone who adores GX and has Judai as one of my favourite characters in media, GX’s depictions of growing up, mental illness and as you greatly said in this video, the philosophy of why we do what we do, to have fun or to win, all make it a show that is heavily underrated by so many people to this day.
Tbh, I'd personally moreso praise Season 3 on how it uses the concept of the mental issues to tell a great fictional story, rather than the execution of the mental issues themselves. I mean, that whole thing involves good old dark side-DID and Jaden speedrunning his depression because of a relatively simple reality check, that's kind of a yikes in actual terms.
@@blugetsbusy4508 I think the original and GX are better in English and I rarely say that. I watch 99% anime in Japanese and speak it pretty well but yeah the original YuGiOh and GX have fantastic Eng dubs.
I remember when GX first came out, everyone HATED it bc it didn’t share the same tone as DM. But as time went on, and Yugioh Abridged rose to popularity, it made everyone look back at GX and appreciate it more with its own “abridging” style of comedy (at least for TV)
Judai was set up to be the unbeatable guy who everyone can rely on intentionally. This plays into the plot later on when he fails to save everyone and becomes depressed. It results in him going through a character arc where he realizes that he has to let others learn to protect themselves which then plays into Syrus' storyline of dealing with his brother on his own and learning to rely on his own strength. Judai does start out as a Mary Sue, but this is intentional to give him room to grow away from that persona.
That quote "Don't take good advice from people with good genetics" is also directly applied to Jun Manjoume/Chazz and Edo/Aster in the series. There is an episode in Season 4 where Manjoume becomes an assistant to Edo to learn about being a Pro Duelist. During the course of the episode, Manjoume sneaks into Edos apartment and witnesses a practice duel between Edo and a coach, with the coach having 10000 Life Points and Edo having 1000. On top of that, Edo's hands have actually started bleeding from the numerous handshake sessions he does as a Pro and from how hard he trains. The coach gets worried, but Edo threatens to fire him if the duel stops, stating that because he (Edo) does not posses special dueling talent (Like Manjoume and Judai/Jaden are implied to have) he has to train ten times harder in order maintain his own skill level.
That scene hit me so hard along with Edo losing, because there's something sad to see hard work alone not really meaning anything when you're not "special" and it's a depressing thing to think of IRL.
So nice to see someone appreciating subbed Yu-Gi-Oh. Too many people only see 4kids and Yu-Gi-Oh abridged memes and aren't willing to check out the source material.
Gx is absolutely the best down to splitting kaiba into two characters (Chazz and Zane) using the slice of life to introduce the characters and create a slow burn before the intensity cranks up. While definitely unintentional this served the plot pacing well
@@lucasgoncalves7774 aster I see more as a version of a dark counterpart of Jaden. While he’s got maybe the ego and rough childhood he feels slightly distinct He’s kinda like a reverse marik
My biggest complaint that I had with GX season 2 is that instead of serving as a bridge between Season 1 and Season 3, it was more similar to Season 1 (Like the MC didn’t develop much, the tone was the same, etc). What frustates me is that certain ideas in Season 3 (Like the Supreme King/Gentle Darkness and Yubel) kind of come out of nowhere in the show. If they were first explored in the 2nd season, then the worldbuilding woud have made more sense. As an example, lets take the duel between Jaden and Aster. In the end of the duel, Jaden loses. And we see a glimpse of the Light of Destruction, as Jaden’s mind is somewhat warped (since he couldn’t see his cards). What should have happened, in my opinion, is that the power inside Jaden (i.e Gentle Darkness) should have appeared in order to save Jaden from being affected by the Light of Destruction. This could be a great plotline, since it will change the way we see Jaden. Like he is not anymore a normal kid that is battling against supernatural forces. It would also make Jaden question itself, since he doesn’t know that he has this power. Then, in the final duel against Sartorius and Jaden, their individual powers (Light of Destruction and Gentle Darkness) would clash with each-other. Sartorius could also explain about the law of the universe, that is based on chaos and order, and stuff that’s realated to the lore of the series.
It's the power of hindsight. Because the show was pretty much made up on the fly with only a few concepts having vague buildup, it is only now clear where they failed to place connective tissue. All the plotbeats and ideas are here, they just fail to properly connect, which is why I'm pretty sure a remake could be amazing. Issue: I'm falling apart under the earth before they are going to properly support the old materials again. They had a lot of time to consider remakes of the older animes and/or seperate adaptations of the mangas, but not even a single blip appeared on the radar simply because the only thing that is relevant to the people behind the scenes is cardsales and the Gatchagame-whales, I swear the seemingly pointless localization of the sevens videogame and subsequently the anime was a mistake of a higherup signing off on it accidentially because I have no other reason why those happened, it surely wasn't for their fans with how these things usually go.
That's because you didn't watch the English sub because Jaden power the gentle darkness or to control the spirits or heard spirits was foreshadowed from season 1 and little bit explore in season 2 and fully explore in season 3 and season 4 we see how he can control that power.
What sucks for me is that the episodic nature of YGX episodes (especially the first half of season 1) are my favorite. It was just duels in a school setting and that’s all I wanted. I didn’t care about the story arcs. I didn’t care about there being no “real stakes”. It was just fun to watch and I enjoyed the character growth within its episodic nature. I love the OG YGO, but YGX, at first, was a nice change of pace…until you know what. After that, it was only the duels themselves that kept me interested.
Pretty good, season 2 has it's on and off moments, I liked asters and Zane's arcs in particular but you are 100% that the filler duels like the princess frog duel were horribly placed. Although I did like the one with Lorenzo (dub only because the actor killed it there).
15:34 - Part of this is due to Takuma Saiou cursing Edo’s deck to cause Judai to lose his ability to physically perceive his cards even spiritually. His deck is full of duel spirits (aka specters of the monster cards in his deck), so being suddenly cut off from an entire deck’s worth of friendships on top of the devastating loss took their toll on Judai. Not helped by the fact that his inability to see his own cards seriously hampers his ability to duel in the first place. There’s no fun in a game where you’re blind and deaf to your own resources, especially when it’s a strategic affair like Duel Monsters.
If GX had just maintained its carefree nature and was simply a semi-realistic college sports-comedy about students trying to become the next king of games or something, it would have been the best thing that ever happened to ygo. I wouldn't mind a liiiitle bit of supernatural elements or a few shadow game references or something, but frankly, by the point it got back to children playing card games in order to save the world it was just impossible to get over the silliness. It could also easily have maintained its darker elements while still being non-supernatural by the way, like it did with Zane which was a perfect way to show how a super competitive environment can ruin someone's character and eventually life... Boy it would have been so good...
I think the first episodes, or even the first season, should consist of filler episodes that build the different characters. Duel Monsters kind of did but there are some bits of Tea's characters scattered about season 2. Zexal did it best. The first arc already has plot threads but mainly consists of the search for the number cards while introducing characters that will show up later. There is a significant shift in tone when Kaito shows up, because up until then it's just Yuma trying to recover Astral's memories. When the numbers are gathered and the Heartland tournament concludes, the Barians need to be introduced. Once again the slice of life episodes return, with the looming sensation that something is about to happen because of how the tournament ended. Like breathing: you breathe in new characters then breathe out the story unfolding.
I wouldn’t necessarily call Judai a merry sue; but the writers did give him far more wins than was needed. More of the main cast definitely could’ve had some of the duels/wins.
GX gets overlooked thanks to 4Kids since they overly censored the series and unlike the original Yugioh it was a disaster since it changed the show far too much a lot of wrong translations and people ‘disappearing’ rather than dying watching GX in sub makes it a completely different show
I see Hell Kaiser in the Thumbnail, and I'm sure I'm in for a good ride. AND HELL YEA WAS I RIGHT! Really enjoy your Talks about the GX Seasons. As someone who kinda likes GX but also has a lot of points to dislike it, I really love to hear other opinions about it. I never gave it a thought that Judai and Ryo were more like the polar opposites and Edo being right in between them. I like that idea a lot! Can't wait to hear what you have to say about Johan. Nice video!
I feel like season 1 and 2 of gx has to be the way that they are for season 3 and 4 to have a huge impact the way that they do. I feel like most people miss the main theme of Gx which is that teenagers growing up and being adults. Also I hate when people call Jaden a Mary Sue when he has more losses than Yusei and Yugi combined and that the other characters of Gx don’t get any shine. Gx cast do more than the original cast in terms of dueling and being somewhat relevant plus let’s not forget how 5ds shafted Aki for Crow and how Yusei mostly solves everything.
The first half of Season 3 drags a lot, but one thing it does pretty well is that it first introduces the "originstate" of everyone being kinda silly teens who are way over their head with everything despite all the whacky life treatening challenges they face. Then it challenges that status quo when they are taken to the desert world, before everything is properly shattered when Yubel appears and Jaden accidentially triggers the Dark World-Arc in his desperation to fix things, with the key parts of his characterarc in the season happening along those lines. That's actually kind of the reason why some people watch Season 3 by itself. Seasons 1 and 2 certainly help a lot thematically and continuity-wise, but it pretty much tells its narrative in a selfcontained way that can be enjoyed on its own.
Chazz and Alexis are not upper classmen they are in the same grade, they just are in the better dorms. Remember Jaden graduated a slifer red suggesting dorm color and class year are not related.
It is kinda sad. But it is kinda make actual sense why Judai behave the way he does in S3 ir S4. He is the one who carried the res tof the cast (which is usually K.O'd and then need to be rescued from other dimension/shadow realm) and etc. While the said friends is mostly useless on their own and need Judai to solve most of their own problem.....
You can say that for every yugioh protagonist supporting class not just Gx. The Gx cast did more than the original in terms of dueling and being relevant. Also let’s not act like Yusei wasn’t seen as the person to save the day all the time in 5ds outside of maybe jack the other did nothing and they even shafted Aki for black wings.
@@demigod4842 not really. In OG series example, we really see how powerful Joey is on his own. And then again at OG series, they at least offer some help and support. For example like in last arc of it. It is different in GX, where the main cast have to be rescued by Judai all along the series. Like "Oh great, I solved Chazz's problem. Oh no, Alexis is in trouble, guess I will have to help her solve her problem too." This is common thing happened for GX all way the plot is drag on. Which effectively making them as really a burden for Judai, and not to mention in last arc where they are meddling in Judai's personal job eventhough Judai already said that this job is too dangerous for them, and then they ended up have to be rescued by him again.....
@@th3ra83 The interessting thing is that everyone actually regressed in that regard. The only one who managed to weasle his way out of that trap was Bastion in Season 3 because he just stopped dueling and did other things, so he did not have to compete for relevancy with Jaden. And even then, he unironically had to be written out of like 90% of the season to not break the plot with facts and logic, the writers really went the cheap route here.
For a parallel to Zane, see Toshiki Kai in Cardfight!! Vanguard. He's not shown to be unbeatable by any means, but he literally says that he was sick of being left behind--he was the "Jagen" of the show, he couldn't evolve further...saying more would be huge spoilers for a severely-underrated character arc. AND KAI BECOMES S4's PROTAGONIST.
I can understand why you feel the way you feel towards sartoripus and the whole cult thing, but I just wanted to voice my opinion, and why I think it's good. First, I wanna say that I'm a sucker for plots where the protagonist group have found themselves in a situation where the villains outnumber them tremendously, and seing how most of the school became brain washed, that was very true for the cult part. So, when the protagonists are in the minority like that, it poses an interesting situation. One where they're overwhelmed, and pursued almost. It's always to have a dynamic shift like that in my opinion. While I can agree that Sartorious is a bit too much like marik, I'd say that he's distinguished enough. At first, when you see him and find out he is Aster's agent, you don't think much of him, you're still busy thinking of Aster as the bad guy. That's why sartorious is cloaked in his first appearances, he wishes to stay hidden. When he starts taking over the school by brainwashing the students, his manner is calm, and he can come off as playful. Even Chazz, when he was brainwashed, was treated as a joke. The show didn't want you to focus on Sartorious. He stayed hidden. And for the longest time, he remained his calm, charming self. Ironic comparison, but he is almostike Dio from jjba. Both at first as seen as charismatic, calm people, but when their respective final fights begin, both of them go full on insane mode. I like that sartorious, someone staying hidden, and looking calm, when he gets so close to his goal goes completely insane. It's something similar to villains getting cocky when they think they've won, but the man straight up goes insane. Again, it's okay if you don't like him, I just wanted to give a pov into why someone could enjoy him.
I’ll throw my two cents and say Satorious isn’t a bad antagonist but one that wasn’t fully explored in fact I find his appearance in season four much better cause it explores a former enemy lamenting his lost power to the point he would willingly lose his way just to reclaim said power. Also another problem with the society of light arc is the mixture of so many filler episodes and that brainwashed characters don’t really get screen time until it’s time to duel Judai which feeds into character shafting unless your name is Bastion in which case you are made into a joke despite the fact you were built up as one the society’s dangerous weapons.
@@Personarose honestly, fair. Sartorious definitely could've gotten a deeper dive as a character. The filler like episodes, while a valid argument, is also something kind of typical for GX at that certain point in time. And the point about the brainwashed is completely right. It would've been way better if they were shown a bit more. And bastion is a whole other can of worms, that I'm too lazy to open, but in short, he was done extremely dirty
Yugioh GX is not my favorite yu-gi-oh anime series bit overall a fine series. Judai and Zane are my favorite characters in GX and have soild character development.
While I undersatnd what they were going for with Zane in seasons 2 and 3, I think they didn't really execute his full arc properly. For example, Zane it's just winning, he's being ruthless, he's not respecting his opponent, and he abandoned his Cyber End Dragon. Zane might not be evil and want to take over the world, but he's become selfish and has no qualms with hurting anyone to get the win. Zane makes so many morally compromising choices and I'm cool with that if that was part of an arc where he had to regain his morality and realize there is more to dueling than winning. The problem is, season 3 kind of forgot to develop that part of his arc. He ends the arc losing to Yubel and realizing that he cared so much about the winning that he forgot about the fun. The problem is they never show how his got to that point. For Jaden or Chazz, you see their character progression as they duel and change as people. Zane has such little screentime in season 3 that the didn't have time to show that progression. They really needed to show how he felt like something was missing, how he felt regret for the person he had become, how he felt guilt for hurting his duel monsters and his friends. Most importantly, they needed to show Zane remember who he used to be. They never fully executed this realization however, and I think this problem is represented by how his clothing never changes from the black outfit. That outfit represents the morality of his character but they never commit to it enough. He talks about how he changed in his duel with Yubel but it's rushed and feels cheap when he never makes amends to his friends for his mistakes. It's never symbolized that he changed with his clothes. I would have much preferred giving Zane more screentime to really flesh out his arc, he could have been a duel protagonist with Jaden and we should see their journeys parallel with each other, facing similar defeats, taking different paths as they rebuilt themselves, but ultimately realizing that dueling is for the fun of it and for other people. That would have been the prefect character arc.
I absolutely agree with you on the slice of life aspect of GX I think thats one of the reasons I enjoyed sevens so much, despite its flaws I really love the lighthearted duels and fun moments the first season of GX had Not that the series after season 1 was bad, its just that season 1 had a unique charm to it imo
1:20 to be fair the first episode of DM was really a TLDR of many season zero plot points, it's really just there to justify why Yugi is on Pegasus's radar.
I mean the dark tone is obvious. The main stream Yugioh series (meaning ones that focus on the OCG and not spin off versions such as DM to Vrains), were dark due to the fact they mainly target a teen audience. Remember, Shonen manga and anime mainly target early to late teen boys (12-18). And the OCG packs in Japan all say on the back “対象年齢12才以上” (Translation: “Target age 12 years and older”). Which is an obvious indication that the game targets an early teen player base or older. (Mostly due to it’s complex ruling). And they all had since 1999 and still do today. I am aware of Rush Duels, but that’s a completely different game and made for a much younger audience than the OCG’s intended players. And not only that, Weekly Shonen Jump’s current chief editor Hiroyuki Nakano has stated in 4 interviews that Weekly Shonen Jump’s main demographic has always been young teenage boys and has always been the main focus since it’s first publishing. They always have to remind writers of manga who want their works published in that magazine, that this is a magazine for early to late teen boys. Why is this relevant, you ask? Because the original Yugioh was published in that magazine and all spin-off manga were published in the V-Jump magazine which is the brother magazine to WSJ. Yugioh’s dark tone was clearly due to the fact it was targeting a teen male demographic. And it works. Cuz they all have “teen drama” in them as well. Especially, in DM and GX. GX’s lighthearted and slice of life tone was something they wanted to do, but they saw a decline in viewers because of the lack of dark themes and tones. So they went back to it on season 2.
I genuinely blame the weird localization and the inconsistent US-broadcasting standards for the meme of it being "A children's trading card game". This is like the one time crazy parents were right, maybe the game designed around fictional occultism that is sourced from a pretty dark manga partially about dark rituals from the past should not be given to kids. Even the censored anime still contains elements of dark magic, the power of the soul, generational guilt and the sins of humanity. All concepts at least partially beyond the average smaller kid.
Really you saw Sartorias as a Merik clone. That seems weird to me when I see him I’m reminded of Dartz. Ah oh well I guess we are yu-go-oh fans who see things differently. Neat. You saw Merik I saw Dartz. The reason why I saw him as Dartz his plan seemed eerily similar to Dartz’s plan to bring the laviathan to destroy the world while Merik just wanted the power of the pharaoh to rule the world not end it.( though let’s be honest if Merik did end up ruling the world he’d lead it destruction regardless)
That's kinda of a shame cause its more difficult to have the recognition that they have in the serie in real life ... plus that mean that we will probably never get duel disk with solid vision😢😭
I loved how Zane became really dark but conscious of what he was doing. Then he started to come back over time. No real impactful event other than a victory over Syrus. He was still intense but more balanced than before.
Yo zane/kaiser is my absolute favorite. He’s so needlessly edgy 😂 and I started getting good at the game when I started using his cyber strategy in tag force 1 for the psp
Hoooly shit your YGO videos are good. Here you are actually giving the first couple seasons of GX depth. Next thing, you'll tell me Zexal is deep (I'm a quarter serious, some characters do have cool arcs to be fair)! Anyway, I do appreciate the longer videos! The longer, the better! I loved the Waking the Dragons arc video, what a ride!
I think that the wildest thing about GX for me was just how many oiled up, incredibly muscular dudes there were: we had Hassleberry, Mad Dog, Axel, Viper, the dude that nobody cares about who played Cloudians, gimp Jesse...
I don't think gx is THAT dark It definitely goes to dark places but never to the level beyond teenage dark (which makes sense because that's the target audience)
For jaden beating crowler my brain just sorta ties it to the manga because in the manga jaden got the E-Hero deck from a pro he was friends with so my brain just goes "well he's using a pro's deck and has probably been taught by him" so it makes sense that he's pretty good especially when he duels against people who are almost pro or actually pro duelists and loses (the pro that jaden was friends with was retired because he was sick) so i see it as compared to standard duelists jaden is good because he's like semi-pro but when faced with modern pro players he either straight loses or stuggles to win until he has more experience and makes his own neos deck
Cool video. Some points and opinions tho. Jaden was not feeling like his usual self because he literally could not see his cards and could not play what he enjoyed anymore. Not because the defeat made him depressed. Also I think Satorius is one of the best villain in the show. It actually felt like he was unbeatable cuz he could predict accurately the future and when he said he would win, he won. He also beat Aster who was arguably the best duelist this season. Statorius was a real threat cuz of his bond with the Light of destruction. Plus seeing all Jaden's friends become corrupted by light looked quite threatening too. Sartorius being similar to Marik does not make him boring. Nice video tho. I agree how they gradually changed the tone of the series benefited Gx as a whole.
To call Saio a copy of Marik is insulting to both Marik and Saio (For those asking, Sartorius is known in Japan as Takuma Saio) Marik developed his evil side because of the trauma, pain, abuse and the hell he received from his father, and the suffering he felt because of the fact his family was locked underground because of a dead guy who might get reincarnated into a kid and save the world via Duel Monsters Saio was corrupted via the Light of Destruction, an alien-like entity that corrupts things as it pleases, don't forget, that Light took over not only Saio, but also Yubel and Destiny Hero Bloo-D I implore you to not compare the two like that because Saio was being controlled and manipulated by something he had no chance of overcoming without help from someone else Marik literally had to face the trauma, face his past, and realize that what he was doing was wrong to help Atem and push past Yami Marik's control over him Saio had to seek help, Marik overcame his trauma, two entirely different things, so no, Saio is not a copy of Marik
I was wondering if someone was going to point that out. Marik did started to be kind of evil himself and then his dark side completely took over Sartorius was sort of hinted to be in control of himself and was a head of a brain washing cult bug little by little it showed that he wasn’t and it was, as they say, “The Light”.
I absolutely loved the beginning of GX and the lack of a plot. I really enjoyed just watching Jaden going to class (or not) and dueling. It fell off for me around the darker arcs. Probably an unpopular opinion but that’s what I liked most.
I will say even off the bat judai was never really a Mary sue. He was only ever framed that way. We see he’s a gifted duelist and athlete both things that in this series are explained by him having very good instincts but he’s not a super genius by any means. We even get this contrast early on with Bastien who is a cerebral genius and is the second best duelist in Judai’s year. They kind of exist to show the two sides of dueling, instinct and thought and then Zane represents the mixture of both being both well thought out but having clear natural talent. So judai’s skills are notable but aren’t particularly unnatural for the verse so that already calls into question whether or not he’s a Mary sue as there are other characters who show relative if not exceptional skill. But I’ll steelman the idea that his talent is unnatural to the point that it makes him feel out of place or oc like. It’s still hinted at very early on that he dealt with character struggle’s particularly relating to being a little anti social. Characters throughout season 1 often point out how judai’s behavior is abnormal or not what is generally considered socially acceptable. On top of this the story uses the escalation of each arc and the fact that everything is left in judai’s hands to show how that actually wears down a persons character and emotional stability.
As much as I get the frustration of Judai winning most of his duels and especially the ones with high stakes and being kind of a mary sue, I like how this causes his friends to put him on a pedestal and just expect him to always save the day. And when he can't live up to those high expectations, it has active consequences for both his relationships and his mental health
I gotta disgree with the side characters of gx. There are some greatly written characters like chazz and zane but characters like syrus,alexis and especially bastion are under used in my opinion. There's a reason why Jaden once had a 20 duel win streak, because gx similar to the other yugioh series is the Jaden show. Though since I love Jaden im find with his focus but I honestly wish character like bastion and syrus who had potential weren't really used to their best potential
Honestly I didn’t like GX because I couldn’t stand Jaden because he’s to energetic and honestly would laugh if someone pointed a gun to his head. Sure over time I liked how each season had a different thing they’d have to confront or different villain but it all felt like it just all revolves around him and we only saw his duels when in the original we got to see Joey duel as well. In GX we only get to see mostly Jayden win his duels while everyone else gets their shine for a short time but then they lose every duel after with maybe 1 win before losing theirs soul. Another thing I was sad that Zane lost so much which was sad and he goes from respecting to a man who thinks and cares only about power and enjoys hurting people. Also I hated how after losing to Aster Phoenix he disappears and as he’s about to get back to DA he turns around and unknowingly walks away from it. Look up in the sky for Pete sake
People can say what they want about GX but I think it’s a great era of Yu-Gi-Oh! and it’s honestly my favorite series. Also I understand the major differences between Japanese and English versions but I’m fairly certain most of us here watched the 4Kids dub. It gets really annoying listening to a video on the series and hearing the Japanese names and not knowing what the hell character it is unless it’s a major primary character.
Frankly. GX wasted so many characters and ruined some others and SOLELY focused on Jaden Chazz Aster Zane Bastion Alexis Syrus You have all these characters being reduced to fodder to make Jaden look invincible. It gets worse as it progresses to me.
While I get what GX is going for, the slice of life aspect of earlier episodes genuinely felt better to watch than most of season 3. Like Season 3 was kind of the low point of GX, while season 4 felt better. Konomi must’ve realized turning a person who’s enjoyment of duel monster into a person with no emotion was a bad call. I love GX, no doubt about that, but animes typically do worse when they try to listen to the general audience. If Jaiden was allowed his character arc to not be impacted by that, all scene probably would’ve felt better. Not to mention missed opportunities in GX like: Jaiden should’ve dueled Zane with the Cyber Dark deck in season 2 and have it be a complete wash so Zane loses. This would’ve shook Zane’s current path enough to get season 3 Zane. Bastion as a character missing out on most of season 3 and 4.
A funny note is that the voice actor for the main bad guy is voiced by DIO from jojos bizzare adventure (Takehito Koyasu) and he also deals with tarot cards so him saying the world in a calm and calculated voice is super weird
I actually thought Za Warudo memes were about GX at first because of this, since I recognised his voice. Back in the day, yk. He’s a pretty prolific voice actor, so many shows feature an appearance from him (like he’s one of the supporting cast at Nerv in Eva too)
